As a single mother, Hays is intimately familiar with the feeling of being swamped by the mundane domestic tasks that are necessary for the everyday maintenance of family life, says gallery curator and professor Andries Fourie.

To that end, he says “her paintings offer a glimpse into the endless daily battle between entropy and order that characterizes the struggle to tame domestic chaos. Such accidental sculptures serve as both metaphorical landscapes and self-portraits.”

Additionally, by using watercolors, Fourie says Hays subverts the tradition of drapery studies as traditional markers of skill and craft in oil painting.

Hays received her MFA in contemporary art practices from Portland State University in 2009. She is a visiting assistant professor of art at Willamette.